Had some good Taranto Nights at Wyton when I was there in 90-93 - vivid memories of the Band of HM Royal Marines at full blast in the dining room

and lets not forget what it commemorates.

Arc

Arc - ABSOLUTELY

Re Tracy Curtiss Taylor: from the Daily Mail,

Self-styled 'Bird in a Biplane' stripped of prestigious flying award over allegations she wasn't flying solo during her epic trips.

Don't have the link but it appears that all was not as claimed, (as mentioned in previous posts).

Edit to add, it was in Mail Online, Oct 23rd.

Not sure about the Mail but Saturday's events made the Mirror:

British 'Bird in a Biplane' stripped of flying award amid claims she wasn't flying solo - Mirror Online

Well done the LAA, of which I am a member, and well done Barry Tempest - whom I remember from my flying scholarship days at Sywell in 1961, when he was the "much older" chap crop spraying in a Tiger Moth - I guess he was actually only a few years older than us 17 year olds. Met his son at the LAA Rally this year.

I think a growing number of people will be watching and following this increasingly sordid debacle and hoping that the whole truth will eventually be forced out.

Aside from irritations of the photos of her in military uniform, the connections with high ranking members of the establishment and all the corporate PR, a whole lot of people are getting truly p1ssed off with this classic example of the "post-factual" world we seem to increasingly live in.

I commend the thread in the private flying forum to all and any military aviators with an aversion to "doublespeak" as Orwell would have it. Especially those of us that have that actually earned our rank, and would have been assessed on our integrity every day of our working lives (and there would have known that creating our own definition of a word like "solo" would not cut the mustard).

Edit, I just checked the Navy List and she is indeed listed as an Honorary Officer (Lt Cdr). I am gobsmacked that this is not being chased up on by our pprune naval aviators???? WTF???

Wander00
 

Barry was a year ahead of me at school, or was I a year late ?
Anyway a good guy.

About 79 time we were with my TA recruiting stand at some event at Belton Park, near Grantham. Barry was due to turn up to display in his TM, but there was an announcement that "due to unforeseen circumstances " his display was cancelled. Turned out he had got caught up in some cables whilst displaying over the Trent in Nottingham

I wonder whether the 'guest speaker' will have the gall to turn up at BRNC in some sailor-suit with Lt Cdr insignia - perhaps even with a non-entitled pilot's flying badge?

BEagle

Given her attitude so far (and for her sake I hope she's not as delusional as some press releases/statments make her sound) my money is on the fact she will turn up if the invitation stands...there's money to be made and no doubt there will be polite applause for her to bathe in.

But yes, regardless of the uniform ( That's the Senior Service's problem to sort out somehow), she should get rid of the military flying badge.

"The Taranto Dinner provides the perfect opportunity for the Officer Cadets at the college to be introduced to the Fleet Air Arm tribe and to experience the camaraderie and spirit of those they one day aspire to join. Guest of Honour this year is Tracey Curtis-Taylor (www.birdinabiplane.com)".

Is there really no ex-FAA tribesman/woman who can replace her to recount true camaraderie and spirit tales from their personal experience? Shame on you Dartmouth.

This is now all over the mainstream media, this is is just one example.

'Bird in a biplane' hits back at claims she did not fly solo as she threatens legal action

The honorary Royal Navy Lt Cdr has said she will be taking legal action. Against whom? The guy who has been posting the facts about her "adventure" (as described on the flyer forum by one poster a well funded joy ride, with an instructor) has been posting under his own name, completely openly for well over a year. If what he is posting is untrue, malicious or in anyway defamatory, she could have had this in court months ago.

She has played footloose and fancy free with a pretty sacred aviation term "solo". She claims these were not reported as solo flights, despite the overwhelming evidence available all over the internet and elsewhere that they were.

Her and "her people" are indulging in the time-honored political defence:

Deny
Obfuscate
Threaten

Surely this is not the military way. Surely any arm of the military has a duty to get the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth and then either:

a. Back her.
b. Sack her.

Pardon my ignorance..
Could somebody explain just what her connection to the Royal Naval Reserve might be that warrants her being accorded the rank of Hon Lt Cdr?
Was it just due to her applying the RN&RM Charity sticker on the Spirit of Artifice?
Or some other influence?

Now, I gather that the Senior Service has been mucking around with boats and submarines for some time now - and it should therefore know enough
to stay away from rocky bottoms in inadequately charted waters.
.

The honorary RNR commission thing has been trashed by some of the people that get awarded one. Increasingly, instead of recognising genuine, inspirational figures (step forward Robin Knox-Johnson & Dee Caffari, who are a credit to the uniform), the RN PR department seem to lunge clumsily at all kinds of shysters and spivs, hoping to get some vicarious PR exposure. They've managed to do my head in twice over TCT's appointment, from both the flying side and from the ex-RN side.

The new Navy List has also managed to cut out serving Maritime Reserves Officers from its listings, but still includes MR Honorary Commission holders, which looks like a massive kipper cross the face for the actual, serving MRs from where I'm standing.

Lets hope she either has the decency to call in sick or that the College has the nous to make any applause brief and cursory.

Asked and answered dear chap. Click on the link and navigate your way to post #2171 (page 109)

http://www.pprune.org/private-flying...d-threads.html

You will see all the links you ever need...nepotism in the RN! Surely not!

Thanks, TOFO.
Seems that some of Her Majesty's relatives are out of control.
She's going to have to have a word with a couple of them, I think.
.

Post by Jay Sata on the Private Flying threadPerhaps Her Majesty is not happy with the company Her relatives associate with Stan.

I wish I could join in the festivities tonight but alas, I have only ever worn civvies during my time in the MOD as a weather guesser.


Taranto was an event of even greater significance than most would appreciate. It was far more than the destruction of the Italian fleet at anchor. The success was noted in far away Japan. Historians have made the connection between Taranto and the subsequent raid on Pearl Harbour. The Japanese action then brought America into the war and from that point, the defeat of Nazi Germany was assured.


I wish you all a pleasant evening and look forward to reading suitably redacted reports should high jinks ensue.